The only Metroid I’ve played before this was Prime, but I’m a huge fan of Metroidvanias so was looking forward to trying out a 2D style one with Dread. It’s a good game, but thought it was a bit… uninspired? The presentation’s strong and I liked the gameplay for the most part, especially the movement once you find more abilities. The bosses were fun too and really force you to make use of all your skills, especially for the last one. On handheld the control scheme was a bit awkward, like having to hold a button to aim while trying to dodge a lot, but I got used to it after a while.

But overall there wasn’t really much about Dread that made it stand out to me next to others in the genre. I think what was mainly lacking was the exploration. The map is sectioned into different areas with teleport loading screens back and forth, and much of it is blocked until you have the skill you need and the path leads you directly back to that area to progress, which made the level design feel pretty linear aside for backtracking for missile upgrades.

Also I wasn’t a fan of the EMMI robots at all, thought they were just boring stealth sections that didn’t add much to the game. Getting caught by them was meant to feel tense, but ended up being more annoying than anything.